Alabama 77, No. 22 Vanderbilt 63

The Crimson Tide (11-11, 4-6 Southeastern Conference) snapped a three-game losing streak despite having six scholarship players _ including leading scorer Schea Cotton _ in street clothes because of injuries.

That left the Tide with only eight players against Vanderbilt, five of whom were freshman and two were walk-ons. But that didn’t stop the Tide from applying relentless pressure that forced Vanderbilt (16-5, 6-4) into a sloppy, poor-shooting performance.

The Commodores shot just 36 percent for the game, 23 percent in the first half as they fell behind 38-23 at the break.

Vanderbilt’s Dan Langhi, the SEC’s leading scorer at 22 points per game, was held to 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting. The 6-foot-11 Langhi was guarded most of the day by Martin, a 6-foot-3 guard, and walk-on Jim Bakken, who played eight minutes.

Three freshmen started for the Tide and each scored in double figures _ Erwin Dudley with 18 points, Terrance Meade with 17 and Rod Grizzard with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Vanderbilt had just one field goal in the final nine minutes of the first half and the scoring woes continued early in the second. It took the Commodores more than three minutes of the second half to score their first points, a layup by Langhi that cut the score to 45-25 with 16:26 to play.

That started an 8-0 run that cut the score to 45-33, the closest Vanderbilt would get the rest of the game. Alabama answered it with 3-pointers by Martin and Tarik London and a layup by Dudley that pushed it back to 53-33 with 13:00 to play.

Vanderbilt shot just 9-of-27 from 3-point range and was outrebounded by the smaller Tide 38-27.

Sam Howard scored 14 points for the Commodores and James Strong added 12.